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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The Watchers

The Watchers, or Grigori, are ancient angelic beings associated with stellar lore that watch over witches. They are sometimes envisioned as the Watchtowers of the witch’s circle.

In the stellar cults of Mesopotamia there were fourstars known as Lords or Watchers. Each of these stars “ruled” over a cardinal point of the compass, circa 3000 BCE. Aldebaran was the star of the Vernal Equinox, and was the Watcher of the East. Regulus, star of the Summer Solstice was the Watcher of the South. Antares was the star of the Autumnal Equinox and was the Watcher of the West. Finally Formalhaut was the star of the Winter Solstice and Watcher of the North. Seven-stepped pyramid towers were constructed bearing symbols of each of these four stars and times of year. These ziggurats formed the first instance of the Watchtowers.

The Watchers are echoed in the four winds of the ancient Greeks, and in the four Archangels of Christian belief: Michael (Fire), Gabriel (Water), Raphael (Air), and Auriel (Earth). However, the Watchers are also mentioned as fallen angels in the apocryphal Book of Enoch. These Watchers are said to have instructed the daughters of men in certain magical arts. The usual associations are as follows:

These Enochian Watchers were said to have mated with the daughters of men and produced a race of giants, the Nephilim, who were gifted with magical powers. These Nephilim possessed odd genetic traits that are similar to the “Witches’ Marks” of old, such as giantism, extra teeth, polydactylism, and supernumery nipples. Indeed, some modern witches still claim descent from certain specific fallen angels.

5 comments:

Hi. If you're interested in the nature and names of the Fallen Watchers, I would read the First and Second Books of Enoch, where the Fall of the Watchers is described (in the Second Book of Enoch they are called the Gregori). The Third Book of Enoch talks about the unfallen Watchers. I believe they have these books at sacred-texts.com If you're interested in working with them in practice, look for the works on Traditional Witchcraft by Andrew Chumbley, Daniel Schulke, Michael Howard, Robert Cochrane, Robin Artisson and Nigel Jackson. The organization Cultus Sabbati also works with the Watchers. If you're looking for "darker" stuff with the Watchers, look for Michael W. Ford. Hope this helps, good luck.

Hi, I'm a Celtic polytheist so I don't really have personal feelings about this topic,but I honestly don't think eclecticism is that bad as long as it's done carefully and intelligently. For instance you mention angelology and witchcraft and advise to keep them seperate, but there is at least mythological basis for associating witchcraft (even modern practices) with the Fallen Angels of Enochian lore. The bible makes condemnations against the practice of witchcraft (as do the authors from some ancient pagan cultures) and the Fallen Angels are, according to the lore, opposed to the god of Israel (who can be linked to earlier pagan, Caananite deities) so associating them with witchcraft really isn't so much of a stretch. I realize that Enochian lore isn't canonical, but the books that make up the Bible were decided by men with their own interests, not any divine intelligence. Also, if this author (and others) have reasons for associating the Watchers with witchcraft, and it works for them in their personal practice, then that's all they really need to know. I mean, a lot of the tales and mystical experiences that pagans, reconstructionists, occultists, Abrahamists, etc., base their traditions on are personal experiences. In many cases the world over, the polytheistic pantheons we know of were cobbled together from earlier tribal and familial deities. Was this not a "mashing" of traditions according to the tastes of the people involved? Now, this mashing must have worked in practice, as people continued to believe in these pantheons of mashed tribal deities for centuries, if not millenia. Which brings me back to my earlier point...if it works for the person in their personal practice, that's all they really need. Thank you, I'd be happy to here any further thoughts you have. :)